White rose

[shaunyc]

Please provide feedback on this picture.

http://www.shaunyc.org/white-rose.jpg

Some technical details:

Shutter speed: 1/500 sec
Aperture: 7.1
Exposure mode: Program
Exposure compensation: +1/3
Flash: Off
Metering mode: Centre-weighted average
ISO: Auto
Focal length: 21.0 mm
Subject distance: 0.37 m
Macro focus: On
Image size: 2048 x 1536
Image quality: Raw
White balance: Auto

The setup:

Camera on tripod, with daylight filter and lens hood. The sun was above and to the right, and I placed a white reflector below and to the left. In Photoshop, cropped the shot and darkened the green foliage in the lower left.

Thanks,
Shaun

[Del K]

Shaun,

I like it. I have a John F Kennedy in my garden that I want to get a shot of, will share it when I do.

To your critical eye, is the result of the exposure correct, in brightness and purity of the white? It looks like you might have been able to go up 1/3 more in exposure, but without seeing the rose, I can't tell if it was needed.

Del K

[mpkirby]

The rose is good, but what about the harsh shadows? Would it have been beter to diffuse the sun a little? Also the background is a little blah. Perhaps rotate around the flower (or pick a different one), with a little more colorful background. Even a "wall of green" would have been nice

Mike

[shaunyc]

>>The rose is good, but what about the harsh shadows?

Hmm, good point - after I took the shot I had a look at coffee-table book and the images it contained were much more evenly lit. I'm not sure how I would have diffused the sunlight though, except by waiting until the flower was in the shade.

I hadn't though about the background, except to try and make sure it wasn't too cluttered. An alternative to replacing it might be to crop more tighly on the flower, so that dark background is less dominating. I'll give it a try.

With regards to the exposure, I tried going up another 1/3 of a stop, but began to blow out some of the highlights. This one seemed to offer the best compromise of brightness and highlight detail.

Shaun